Manchester United 2-Manchester City-0 

This was a significant win for Manchester United under the stewardship of interim manager Michael Carrick, who has now hit the ground running.

Over the last decade, the blue side of Manchester has heaped misery on the Red Devils, superseding it as the top team in the EPL.

The question was who would be good enough to succeed Ruben Amorim? Let’s ask that question again at the end of the season.

Today, United played City off the park and it now has to build upon this performance.

Carrick’s decision to have Casemiro and Mainoo anchor the midfield and free up Bruno Fernandes paid off handsomely.

Back from the Africa Cup of Nations, Bryan Mbeumo opened the scoring for United. Earlier Harry Maguire rose to hit the crossbar with a header, which surely should have been in the back of the net. United had two first-half goals ruled out for offside.

Fifteen minutes from time, Patrick Dorgu scored a second goal, sealing City’s fate. Pep Guardiola’s team didn’t put together any meaningful attacks and Phil Foden was again poor.

Erling Haaland didn’t get a look in today and had just 14 touches with only two inside the box. He was pulled off in the 80th minute because he was ineffective and didn’t contribute anything to the team. There is talk that Real Madrid is planning a move for Haaland, who was recently seen in the Spanish city. He has failed to score in City’s last four games. 

Mason Mount had a goal ruled out for offside, which would have made the game end 3-0 although Manchester United could have destroyed City 5-0. The 2-0 was faltering to City.

Manchester City have dropped nine points from their last four games and are now in second position in the EPL on 43 points, six points off from Arsenal. 

This win sees Manchester United jump into fourth position on 35 points and the aim must be to secure a Champions League spot.

Today, Manchester United defended well and was effective in attack.

After the game Manchester City’s Head Coach Pep Guardiola assessed: “ The better team won. We have to accept it. They had an energy we didn’t have; congratulations to them. We. arrived many, many times in the final third but we didn’t have a threat or make a movement. That’s partly because of the energy.”

Manchester United’s interim coach, Michael Carrick after his first game as the new boss said: “ I don’t want to get carried away with all the DNA stuff. We wanted to play well today; we wanted to put things into the game that we felt would help us to do that. We defended well as a team, and when we had the ball, I thought we looked dangerous.

“It’s an easy thing to sa,y but we couldn’t have asked for any more. The boys gave everything in so many ways: three days to prepare, little bits of information here and there, they took everything on board tactically and emotionally,and they were able to deal with the game exactly as we hoped.

“Old Trafford is a magic place, and it certainly was today. We all felt it.”

Manchester United face EPL leaders Arsenal next Sunday.